SHOT Show: Hands-On With Winchester’s New Wildcat .22 LR Rifle

Winchester has re-entered the semi-auto .22 LR market with the Wildcat. It’s an extremely lightweight plinker that accepts 10/22 magazines and has a whole slew of neat features. Check out the video above for a full walk-through of what makes the Wildcat unique, or visit the Winchester Wildcat product page here. Photo dump follows:

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

Jeremy S for TTAG

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At one point Winchester was importing Russian made bolt action .22s and they called them Wildcat. Toz made them. I bought one and it is a superb shooter. I prefer the bolt gun for teaching new shooters.

According to the website, the MSRP is $249. The website also describes the interesting design of the firing pin – kind of surprising that the video didn’t cover that since it seems like a great feature.

And how about that magazine/last round hold open looking just like the TCR22 magazine last round hold open?? Seems like a few patents are open right now. It does seem very similar to the TCR. Maybe a few better features too…maybe.

If it is made in the USA, I hope they sell enough to make it worth their while. I won’t be buying one though, I am kind of all .22’d up really.

Bought my Ruger 10/22 brand spanking shiny-new for $59 at Jensen’s Custom Ammo in Tucson. It is still my favorite gun ever nearly fifty years later. I’ve worn out magazines for it, been advised a number of times to replace the barrel too.

Instead I just recently bought a new 10/22 as a Christmas gift for a young lady shooter.

So what does this bring that the Ruger 10/22 hasn’t already brought? It looks like it’s got a lot of cheap plastic, and what is with the last couple pictures, can you load in a 10/22 magazine or must you load in some kind of magazine superstructure?

Seems like it is way late to the party, even before Ruger introduced the takedown models.

It fixes everything about the 10/22 that is frustrating. Take down is incredibly simple, you just push a button at the rear of the receiver and the whole trigger & bolt assembly comes out. The button leaves a hole there where you can run a rod through to clean the barrel. The bolt locks back on an empty mag, and the red serrated (for lack of a better word) part you see on the sides is also a mag release–you pull on those and the mag falls down right into the palm of your hand. It still retains the traditional mag release found on the 10/22. It is made in Turkey for those of you wondering